Repetitive Stress Legislation On Chopping Block.

As I type this, the U.S. House of Representatives is on the verge of voting to repeal the Clinton administration's recent legislation on repetitive stress disorders, or RSDs. The Senate has already voted to repeal the measure, and President Bush has indicated he will sign the repeal.

The measure, which was under consideration by OSHA for nearly a decade before being approved late last year, has been a topic of fierce debate and relentless lobbying by both proponents (primarily organized labor) and detractors (primarily businesses). The RSD law requires business owners to advise employees if their jobs carry a risk of RSDs, and to advise them to report symptoms immediately. Owners are not required to alter work patterns unless employees can reliably demonstrate work-related injuries. The business lobby has claimed the measure costs business owners billions a year, while the union lobby claims it saves money by increasing productivity through a reduction of on-the-job injuries.

The technology sector, of course, is one area of the economy where RSDs are prevalent: data entry tasks, component manufacturing, and fabrication processes are all considered jobs with high risks of RSDs. But many other jobs, including those as varied as assembly line work and poultry processing all carry some risk. The risks clearly need to be carefully examined and understood, but neither side claims they do not exist--the debate centers on appropriate remedies. The current legislation, many detractors say, is too costly: it gives workers with proven RSDs up to 90 percent of their pay if they cannot perform their jobs; standard workers compensation benefits give significantly less.

The law may in fact be too generous, and it may be overly broad. But it is still necessary, and if it is indeed repealed, it should be replaced with some version that both sides of the debate will accept. OSHA estimates that millions of RSD-based injuries go unreported, mostly because those suffering from them are low-wage, low-skilled workers, many of whom speak English as a second language. These workers are either unaware of the cause of their injuries or fear they will be fired if they report them. As anyone who sits at a keyboard all day will tell you, repetitive stress injuries can be debilitating, and surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome--one of the more common RSDs--is painful. Those in the tech sector, be they employers or employees, should take a leading role in making sure that new, reasonable legislation is introduced.